Driver dies after collision with tractor trailer

Larry Mitchell Smith, the driver of this 2001 Ford truck, died from injuries sustained when his truck was hit by a west-bound tractor-trailer truck at the intersection of Highway 218 and Morgan Mill Road Wednesday morning.

MONROE —

The driver of a pickup truck died Wednesday morning after a wreck with a tractor-trailer.

The accident happened at about 8:40 a.m. on Highway 218 heading toward Charlotte from Polkton, First Sgt. M.R. Leach of the North Carolina Highway Patrol said.

The tractor-trailer ran the stoplight at the Highway 218 and Highway 200 intersection and struck a pickup truck in the driver door area. The driver of the pickup truck was air lifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte where he later died. Grantham now faces a misdemeanor death by motor vehicle charge, Leach said.

Griffin was also hospitalized, Leach said. As of Wednesday afternoon, he was still in the hospital.